Thales Alenia Space in Italy will produce Europe’s two major contributions to the Lunar Gateway, a US-led space station around the Moon.
TAS will build two pressurised sections: one where astronauts can live, and the other on which refuelling and telecoms equipment can be mounted.
The UK-arm of TAS will provide the refuelling hardware.
The Gateway is intended as a staging post for astronauts as they shuttle back and forth to the Moon’s surface.
At 40 tonnes, the station is a key part of the American space agency Nasa’s Artemis project, which is targeting a human return to the lunar environment 50 years after Apollo.
The first landing is envisaged for 2024, although it will be later in the decade before all the sections of the Gateway are in place.
TAS’s iHab and Esprit modules will most likely be launched on separate Falcon Heavy rockets from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The company’s Turin factory has a proud history in developing pressurised space compartments.
It built half the habitable volume of the International Space Station (ISS); it makes the cargo section of the space station’s Cygnus freighter; it’s part of the Dynetics team developing a crewed lunar lander concept for Nasa; and is working with the private outfit Axiom on a commercial space station.
Walter Cugno, vice president of science and exploration at TAS, said the company would lean heavily on its heritage when producing iHab and Esprit.
“They are different from the space station modules in that they will not be occupied all the time. This means they will have to have much more autonomy,” he told BBC News.
The company has just signed a first tranche contract with the European Space Agency (Esa) of €36m (£32m) to begin work on iHab (the eventual, full contract will be worth €327m/£295m); and has an Authorisation To Proceed for Esprit. An ATP allows work to get under way while final contractual details are still worked out.
Source: BBC News
